WoW Archaeology Guide 1-600

This WoW Archaeology Guide details the most efficient method of leveling Archaeology from levels 1 to 600 in the World of Warcraft. Archaeology is a secondary profession, which means learning archaeology won’t limit what other professions you train your character in. The majority of items discovered with Archaeology are grey trash items which you will sell, however there are also a number of Rare and Epic items that could prove useful if leveling Archaeology will leveling your character.

Updated for patch 5.4

This guide focuses on making the training path easier by focusing on solving the artifacts that which require the fewest pieces and so can be solved at a more frequent interval.

How Archaeology Works

At character level 20 you can train Archaeology Apprentice from an Archaeology Trainer. Once you have trained, your world map will display the dig sites that are available for you to survey. The dig sites appear as spade symbols on your world map when you are looking at a continent-level view. There are always 4 dig sites displayed per continent. Once you clear one, another will appear. The dig sites are unique to you, that is, you won’t need to compete with anyone else to survey them.
When you zoom in to a zone-level view the dig sites are displayed as transparent orange shaded areas on your world map. You will need to travel into the shaded area in order to begin surveying. Each dig site can be surveyed six times. After six surveys, the dig site will be exhausted and a new dig site will appear on your world map.
Once inside the shaded area you will need to use the Survey skill to try and find archaeology fragments. Performing a survey will generate one of four results. You could find a fragment, in which case the fragment will be displayed on the ground for you to pick up. Otherwise, if you don’t discover a fragment immediately, a small tripod will display. The direction of the scope on the tripod will indicate in which direction you should move to find the fragment. The color of the light on the tripod will indicate how close you are to the fragment, that is:

Red – quite far from the fragment

Yellow – somewhat nearby to the fragment

Green – very close to the fragment

The fragments you discover will depend on the location of the dig site. There are twelve different groups that the fragments could be associated with, some of which only become accessible at higher levels of skill. As you collect fragments for new groups, new archaeology projects will be revealed. Each project requires a specific number of fragments in ordered for it to be solved. Once sufficient fragments have been collected you can solve the project and receive the archaeological item associated with that project.

Each set of fragments you collect will increase your archaeology skill level by one. Each solved project will provide a 5 level increase in skill. Projects for rare and epic items will provide a 15 level increase in skill, although these are unlikely to occur until higher skill levels.

Leveling Archaeology 301-375

At level 300 dig sites in Outland become available. In Outland you can find fragments for the following groups: Draenei and Orc.

Some feel it is faster to level Archaeology at these levels in Outland as the fragments will only be for one of two groups, and this should mean they accumulate faster to solve projects. However, the Draenei and Orc projects usually require 45 fragments versus just 30 fragments for most of the Dwarf, Fossil, Night Elf and Troll projects. My opinion is that if you’re currently leveling in Outland then survey dig sites there, but if you’re powerleveling Archaeology on a high level character stick to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and you’ll clear the levels faster in the long haul.

Leveling Archaeology 451-525

At level 450 dig sites in the Cataclysm zones within the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor become available. The important zone is Uldum which is the only location where you can find fragments for the group: Tol’vir. As Uldum is part of Kalimdor, it will occasionally appear as one of the 4 random dig sites for that continent.

At level 500 dig sites in the Pandaria zones become available. In Pandaria you can find fragments for the following groups: Mogu and Pandaren.

Continue leveling Archaeology in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor for the fastest progress.